Works

1971 

Pitosforo Tabiria
for soprano, percussions and magnetic tape   



1973 

Terminus I
for prepared piano 

Terminus II
for prepared piano

Terminus III
for prepared piano 

Cosmuniclef
for flute, guitar and percussions 

Aria antica dal XX secolo
for soprano, tenore, synthesizer and kettledrum 

Notte 
for electric guitar and percussions 



1974 

Calcolo
installation of pipes and 400 marbles in movement

Metempsicosi
for soprano, 3 recorders, ornitophones 



1975 

Cantico dei Cantici
for vocal group and magnetic tapes 

Zitto padre, zitt’o fijo, ecco o lope che ce se pija
for vocal group and magnetic tapes 



1976 

Omaggio a Pulcinella
Neapolitan music theatre

Serenata per una ballerina di legno
for a performer 

Verso
for orchestra

Il libro celibe
for a performer (movimenti di fogli sonori e non)   

In 1976 Giorgio Battistelli was a young man at the beginning of his career as a composer. He was fascinated by alchemy, psychology, and Marcel Duchamp’s “Bachelor Machines”. Inspired by the genius of the French avant-garde artist and the concept that an opera can live freely without marital constraints with the performer, Battistelli invented a book in the form of a three-dimensional score that becomes a performance with the simple gesture of leafing through it. This action renders each musical page of the ‘Bachelor Book’ – constructed by the composer using paper, cardboard, leather, metal and wood – a performer in itself. A ‘score-book’ that doesn’t need to be played but can be performed. A ‘score-book’ that is already music because of the materials used. A musical tale released from its engagement with resonance created by Battistelli with a surrealistic eye and a pataphysical ear of which four copies exist: two were sold to European art collectors and the author owns the other two. The ‘Bachelor Book’ is a score/work-of-art in that it is a visual artwork that can become a musical piece if stimulated. The infinite number of ways the work can be kneaded, ripped, balled up, rubbed, and scratched were scrupulously foreseen in the score-story outlined by the author so that a reading of the book becomes a performance of sounds. Enclosed in a silent music box, sounds are conjured up when hands touch its pages and bring out the essence of each one until the final magic trick: from the same hands, the music slowly and gradually vanishes until the complete silence of the work-of-art as such returns. 

1977 

Hommage
for 12 friction drums and magnetic tape   

2001

Trama
for a performer